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Beat the Streak Report: Weekend, Aug. 13-15

“gllc2112” extended his streak to 37 games after Andre Ethier’s fruitful night at the yard.

“gllc2112″‘s name is Geoffrey Croke.

I know this because he told me.

That’s right, our current knight and shining armor/conch holder/daddy
mac/king of the castle/bee’s knees/Barefoot Contessa has decided to
reveal himself to me. And he seems like a pretty cool guy.

Instead of summarizing his response to my e-mail, I figured I’d let his artistic side fly and copy paste all his wisdom.

For what it’s worth, I sic’d the daylights out of this:

I have been reading your blog, so I knew this e-mail was coming. Do me a favor and keep that voodoo doll hidden.

I cant believe you didn’t like my Jayson Heyward pick.

My name is Geoffrey Croke. I am currently unemployed. I lost my job
last June, so $3,000,000 would be nice. I live in Southampton, NY. A
small summer resort area on the east end of Long Island. (born and
raised here) I am a Met fan, so it hasn’t been too much fun for the
past couple of years. This is actually my first year playing Beat the
Streak, and now many of my friends play also. My strategy is simple,
find a batter who is hot against the starter that day. I just hope
that responding to this e-mail isn’t the kiss of death and I get to talk
to you again in 3 weeks.

Thanks, Geoff

No, thank you, Geoff.

May your hits be bountiful and may you rule Streakland until kingdom come.

Staying up a bit late to see if my Survivor pick wins & TEX pulls off a niffty comeback to move me along. But what about that PHI-NYM game? NYM thows a 1 hitter and the PHI pitcher gets that only hit. In BTS terms, that’s the same as a no-hitter for anyone that picked PHI batters. An odd way to end one’s streak.

It does not surprise me that another damn newbie playing BTS is the current leader. Every single year the leader for the year who won the 10k hasn’t been back the next year and it’s sickening. Ten years and counting for me and I will never stop playing or blogging. Leader’s luck will run out eventually. That strategy doesn’t work either. I tried that one as well that he is using. At least Sanchez got me two hits on Friday and have him again on Saturday.

Saturday Aug 14
BTS – Alexi “The Cuban Missle” Ramirez
HR – Sir Albert v. Carlos Zambrano in sweltering St. Louis
Survivor – NYY
Side note: On the streak leader being a first year player.
If I won a big lottery jack pot, I would tell the newspaper reports etc. that this was the first time I every played —- just to piss off the regular lottery players!🙂

Cub “Ace” Carlos Zambrano on the mound in sweltering St. Louis today.
This guy is a “head case”.
What will happen?
a. He outduels Cards ace Chris Carpenter?
b. He leaves the game with his famous heat “cramps.”
c. Big Z tosses a perfect game?
d. None of the above

“Side note: On the streak leader being a first year player.
If I won a big lottery jack pot, I would tell the newspaper reports etc. that this was the first time I every played —- just to piss off the regular lottery players! :)”

But that is different.

Most people play the game as luck.

I believe though that if you put in enough time researching past results, you could probably formulate a set of lottery numbers that have a high probability of coming out and win.

“My dad wrote the book on this stuff. I mean literally, he wrote – and published – a book – it’s called A Mathmatician at the Ballpark. It’s all probability and stats and all that. And his longest streak is 7. So, I’m not a believer in brains to win this game.”

My dad wrote the book on this stuff. I mean literally, he wrote – and published – a book – it’s called A Mathmatician at the Ballpark. It’s all probability and stats and all that. And his longest streak is 7. So, I’m not a believer in brains to win this game.

Just started playing this last week and I am doing fine. After not getting a hit first 2 days, I am hitting 7 in a row now. Just go with the flow. My 420 says Ichiro today so I did. 5 out of 7 days, multiple hits too.

So, I’m not a believer in brains to win this game.”
If anyone ever wins it will be a dose randomness and observation, a good portion of luck and a bit of skill.
My hit by Alexi Ramirez today falls into the luck portion of the formula.
Each time I watch a Cub/Sox game the announcers have a wealth of stats that could help us. How do we tap into that source of info? Example: Saturday, Game of the Week Cubs v. Cards – Tim Mccarver – “Carlos Zambrano is undefeated, 4-0 in his starts at Busch Stadium.” I would have loved to have know this before game time. Come on web guys – Where is the site that gives these tidbits? Sunday August
remember:
1. Troy ‘The Son God” Tulowizki – Has a hit in every day game he played in this season
2. Alex “The Sun Cat” Rios has an amazing daytime batting average.
Can they do it again.
ooliber – Thanks for the thumbs up. Caught a huge break today.
Champion_88 – You comments on posts by fellow bloggers are unnecessary. My challenge to you: Please post something about who you like on Sunday and why (before the game closes.)

OOliber – Para of Brewers is a hittable lefty, day game, Rockies at home and Troy Tulo is “The Sun God.” I’m following your lead here.
HR – Pujols as Cubs Dempster gives up many HR’s
Survivor – Rockies —RE: home v. Brewers and Para with Jiminez starting.
Here’s hoping that Para has his usual day on the mound and does not reach into his locker and put on his superman outfit today.

Will leader get to 40 today? Good chance with Tulo as his pick. Gotta wonder if he’d pick Tulo if he didn’t read these blogs? Only way to know for sure is if he piped in and educated us on his daily pick logic.
Once he falls, the next in line is over 2 weeks behind. I think there are only 2 or 3 more streaks out there, waiting in the wings, that may make a legitimate run for 57. However, I’d guess even more streaks out there likely of making a run at Dick George & $10K.

I don’t know about Tulo today. The stats look good but he mustered hits on the very last at bat last 2 days. More the reason I think he needs a day off. And he has hit like 5 or 6 days in a row now. We will see.

I went with Tulo’s buddy in front of him. I guess if I reset today, there is just enough time to go after Dick’s money.

It just hit me. Even if the leader does not go to 57, he can surely pass Dick and mathmatically put many of us out of even the consolation prize. I will worry about that when I get past 20. Way too far ahead to even think about it. LOL!

Man. I really wanted to take Adam LaR against Strausburg. That is the first “secret” pick that screamed at me. But the hoopla of Strausburg just scared the hell out of me. He is definitely hittable by lefty bats. And LaR is swinging a bat made out of hot coals now.

“Will leader get to 40 today? Good chance with Tulo as his pick. Gotta wonder if he’d pick Tulo if he didn’t read these blogs? Only way to know for sure is if he piped in and educated us on his daily pick logic.”

“Will leader get to 40 today? Good chance with Tulo as his pick. Gotta wonder if he’d pick Tulo if he didn’t read these blogs? Only way to know for sure is if he piped in and educated us on his daily pick logic.”

Joey “The Black Cat” Votto does it again:
Tossed in top of 1st inning for arguing ball/strike call. But this time he got tossed on a 1-2 count and the guy who pinch hit for him got a double. So, Votto has no official at bat and BTS streaks do not end. All who played Votto today caught a huge break. 2nd time this year that this happened to Votto.
OOliber – As the resident bolgger computer expert:
I may have had multiple windows of Beat the Streak open at the same time. Thought I had selected Troy T. but to my surprise I’m back to zero because my place holder pick did not get a hit as my Tulo pick did not register on BTS. Is this possible?

@DRAG, I’m not sure about that. I would refer to either Dave or send an email straight to mlb advanced media, MLBAMbeattheStreak@mlb.com
@bretzky26, BTS runs untill the last game of the regular season, and would include any tie-breakers or make-up games.

“I may have had multiple windows of Beat the Streak open at the same time. Thought I had selected Troy T. but to my surprise I’m back to zero because my place holder pick did not get a hit as my Tulo pick did not register on BTS. Is this possible?”

Whomever you entered in last, is the player that should be inserted into the database.

It may be that the servers have not updated yet, like when that guy was at 35 or so and it said “Today’s Pick: No Selection” on the leaderboards, because a glitch caused it to revert to the picks already made at 4 AM.

First of all, Gardenhire refers to Slowey way too highly. This guy has a 4.34 career ERA. He can very EASILY be replaced if that one start caused signficiant damage.

Secondly, his elbow injury was sooo “major” that he threw just 1 bullpen session and he was cleared to throw 106 pitches. If this injury was ACTUALLY significant, he would have been limited to 60-70 pitches and/or sent down to the minors to make a rehab start.

What really happened is that Gardenhire is too much of a pansy to let his starter throw 140 pitches in a start, which is the ridiculous mentality of MLB managers these days.

I would be pretty happy if I woke up tomorrow morning to a headline that read, “Gardenhire killed off hardcore Twins’ fan for removing Slowey with no-hit bid pending.” We all know that clown would deserve it.

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